Idaho semi-weekly world. [volume] (Idaho City, Idaho Territory) 1875-1908, 1887-06-14
THE ART OF EMBALMINa.
How Bodies Of the Dead Are Preserved for Pu.
ture Generations.

How Bodies Of the Dead Are Preserved for Pu-
ture Generations.
Said Rochester Morning Herald
reporter toa prominent undertaken
recently: Il suppose this warm
weather will causeyou to get out your
refrigerators?"
well, it would few years ago, but
now You know we never use ice for pre-
serving body except in a few cases
where the friends or relatives object
to our embalming it,"
That 10 more expensive, though. is
1t not?1
FOB, no; the cost is about the same
and the trouble is much less. Now,
you see, in using ice we have big box
to carry around, and where we have
Three or four cases at the same time
We would be obliged to have several
coolers. but by the new way of pre-,
serving here is all we have to carry"
and he laid his hand on what looked
like sample case such as is erdi-
narily carried by a liquor salesman.
On opening the case it bore strk.
ing resemblance to surgeons case,
except that on one side were three
quart bottles filled with milky look
ing fluids. The instruments consisted
Ola small knife, a lancet such as is
used by physicians in tapping" and
syringe with great variety OF noz-
zies. This" said the undertaken,
picking up the syringe, "is the princi-
pal thing used, and the nozzles are
used in just as many ways as there
are nozzles. Now we use this nozzle
when W. do not intend to do regular
job OF embalming, but simply to pre-
serve the body a day or two, and it
Is used for injecting the fluid into the
stomach. TIL s is for a hypodermic
| injection, this for a vein, this for an
| artery, and this is used for what we
call initiating. That is, if the person
has been sick a long time and is very
| thin in the face we insert this in the
lace under the ear and force a certain
fluid into the face to give it round
appearance.
"Then | understand that it is not
necessary to fill the veins and arteries
in order to preserve body for few
days?"
Not by any means. OF course it
depends very much on the condition
ofthe body when given into our hands,
but ordinarily we inject into the
stomach and intestines and into the
head through the nose and ears. In
a thorough job, where the body has
to be kept number of days in warm
weather, we fill the arteries, and in
case of the sudden death ola vigorous
person we usually have to draw out
the blood first. This we are obliged
to do while the body is warm, but we
do not inject the embalmlng fluid til
the animal warmth has lett the
| body
How long will body retain its
natural appearance that has beer
thoroughly treated?"
81 can hardly say. All the way
from one year to ten or even more
and | expect if embalned a body
Just to see how long could keep it
it would keep till it was destroyed BY
outside agencies / have moved
bodies that have been buried three Oh
four years that were perfect, only
they We're covered with mold"
How long has the custom of pre-
irving bodies in this manner beer
common among undertakers?"
"lt's only been III general use about
five or six years, although the art o
preserving bodies with solution o
sulphate of alumina was discovered
by Gaunal about 1884. Substitute,
for aluInina are now used, as sulphHt,
OF zinc, bisnuth and salts OF variou.
kinds. 1t is a great art and one thai
undertakers could hardly get alon:
without now that they have begur
practicing it. Our method is, to b,
sure, vastly different from that OF til,
anciei is, for their idea was to pre-
serve the body forever, and to Dc
that all the internal organs had to b.
removed and the flesh was literally
dried up, whereas the art OF embalm
ing as practicted to-day is simply u
preserve the body in natural con
dition for limited time"